Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the heat treatment of substrates provided with coatings using a laser radiation.
Description of the related art including information disclosed under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
Methods are known from applications WO 2008/096089, WO 2010/139908 or else WO 2010/142926 for the heat treatment of coatings deposited on substrates, in particular glass substrates, by laser radiation. The treated coatings comprise, for example, thin layers of silver, of titanium oxide or else of transparent electrically conductive oxides (TCOs). The laser radiation makes it possible to rapidly heat these layers and to improve their electronic conductivity or their emissivity (for the silver or TCO layers) or else their photocatalytic activity (for the titanium oxide layers). The rapid heating of the layers does not substantially heat the substrate, which is not subjected to high thermomechanical stresses, and can be immediately handled and stored, without a slow and controlled cooling step, as is the case for conventional annealing treatments.